Tofugu.com – Wonky Japanese Language and Culture

This post was written by Dave of JapanDave.com who Tweets and has a great newsletter full of amazing pictures of Japan.

Kid’s songs are a wonderful resource to help you learn Japanese better. They are often overlooked because… well, they are a bit silly, but I think they are worth a second look. I’m going to cover a bit of theory here (I promise not too much), and then look at 6 kid’s songs you might use in your studies. Read more…

I get all kinds of weird questions in my e-mail inbox. Sometimes they’re creepy, sometimes they’re hilarious, sometimes they’re interesting, and sometimes they’re a part of a pattern. This is one of those patterns. A few times a month I’ll get the following question:

What is the best Japanese Language electronic dictionary?

Once I get the same question too many times, there’s a good likelihood that I’ll just write the answer via a post here, which is exactly what’ I’m doing. So, what is the best Japanese Language electronic dictionary out there? Let’s find out. Read more…

Hey there, you.

I’m working on an article about studying Japanese using Japanese blogs, but need your help! I’m going through and categorizing Japanese blogs to figure out what blogs are good for what kind of study. I’m also looking for video blogs, if you know of any.

What I’m looking for is your suggestions / your favorite Japanese blogs (in Japanese) that people could potentially use for intermediate / advanced study. It doesn’t really matter what the subject is, how big / small the blog is… really the most important thing, I think, is that the content could be considered interesting (thus making studying it interesting as well).

So, whether it’s cat eater Shoko Nakagawa or Gigazine, let me know what you like. Video bloggers, as mentioned earlier, totally work as well (in fact, that would be awesome, because I don’t know as much about that area of things).

Then, thanks to your help, I’ll go through and figure out the best ones for use in studying Japanese, and it should be pretty awesome.

Tell me your faves in the comments section below! Read more…

With the advent of computers, e-mail, and all those other fancy things that causes our handwriting to be terrible and makes us dependent on spell check, getting opportunities to actually write kanji with our hands is becoming rarer and rarer. I know my hands hurt several seconds into writing something. I have weak hands that a grandma would scoff at (though they’re very beautiful, I’m pretty sure I could go into hand modeling if this whole blogging thing doesn’t work out).

The other day I got an e-mail from Skritter. They’re a pretty rag-tag bunch, but I like that. Skritter lets you practice writing kanji using various flash card sets (either Skritter made, community made, or you-made). Sure, you could do all this with your hands, but here’s what makes Skritter interesting. Read more…

Sometimes, I think, it’s important to think different. Sometimes, when everyone is doing one thing, you should try the exact opposite.  It doesn’t mean it will work, but it’s almost always worth the try. Perhaps you’ll run into something nobody has ever thought of.

This idea is one of those things. I think it works pretty well… sometimes, and it probably won’t work for everyone. The idea is simple: When studying Japanese (or doing anything else), you should stop when you least want to (i.e. when you want to keep studying). Sounds counter intuitive, right? Here’s why it works.

Read more…

(Be sure to stick around to the end, where you can win some goodies from FlutterScape) In the past, I’ve written about a few ways you can buy things from Japan. Most of them have been so-so at best. Finally (seriously, it’s about time), someone’s come up with something that works pretty darn well (I’ll tell you about my experience in a bit), and that something is FlutterScape.

FlutterScape seems a little complicated at first, but really it’s quite simple. There are people in Japan going around to various stores taking pictures of things they want to sell. They don’t buy these things from the store until you buy them. Once you buy the item, they go to the store, get the item, and send it to FluttersScape HQ in Japan. Once FlutterScape gets it they forward the money along (or will send it back to you if the person never gets the item for you) and will send the item to you. Seems complicated, but all you really need to know is that you can safely buy something without much worry about getting screwed over very very easily. Read more…

It’s the debate of the century! (That, and people keep asking me on e-mail, so I thought I should just write a post about it). If given a choice, should you learn Japanese from a native Japanese speaker, or from a “foreigner” (aka non-native Japanese speaker). For a lot of people, I think the decision is already made to do everything they can to get a native Japanese speaker, though that isn’t necessarily always right. Both native and non-native Japanese language teachers have their pros and cons. Let’s figure out what they are. Read more…

Not content to blindy folllow popular methods of language study a Jedi Knight searches the near and far galaxies for hitherto unknown tools and techniques with which to master Japanese. Hidden beneath the long sleeves of a hooded cloak is a tool for deciphering even the densest of Japanese literature, the Kanji Sono Mama Rakubiki Jiten on Nintendo DS. Read more…

J-blogger buddy Thomas from Nihonhacks has recently told me about his latest venture, which is sure to excite Japanese (or any language) learners out there. Traditionally, if you wanted to get audio for something, either it would be there or it wouldn’t (and then you’d be out of luck unless you found someone to record something for you, which doesn’t sound like much fun to me). Enter stage right: RhinoSpike. Read more…

I think it’s funny when I see advertisements like this. “Learn Japanese in 10 Days” it says, without telling you how much Japanese you’ll learn in those ten days. How to say “hello?” How to say “I was ripped off?” No, probably not even that much. Here are the ads I’m talking about (don’t try clicking on them, because they won’t actually go anywhere… and won’t teach you Japanese in 10 days). durr.

It’s advertisements and companies like this that trick people into buying products by toying with their emotions. The promise of instant gratification is a powerful thing. Read more…